The presence or absence of an attempt to meet the victim and the extent of the risk of contact offending are of central significance to the assessment of seriousness of offending against s 204B of the Criminal Code (WA). The preventative character of s 204B offences must be kept squarely in mind in evaluating criminality. For an offender with substantial mitigating factors (early plea, youth, prior good character, low risk of reoffending, no attempt to meet the child), a total effective sentence of 28 months for three s 204B(2) offences and two s 221BD offences was held to infringe the totality principle; 21 months was substituted.
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